The most recent Academic Performance Index numbers released by the state were an uplifting wind for a beleaguered Alameda Unified School District that navigated a well-publicized financial crisis about a month ago. The district, en bloc, scored above the state's performance target for the first time since the API came about eight years ago.

But while district officials were trimming down next year's budget during an emotional, public process, an opportunity silently slipped away.

The Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC), a charter school serving students grades six through 12, lost the chance to plan for a sister school focusing on young, low-performing students.

In January, ACLC won a $400,000 grant from the state to put together another charter school. The grant would not have financed operational costs for the school and the timeline for setting up the school — by September 2007 — was admittedly tight, but the opportunity was there.

Michael DeSouza, a young teacher at ACLC, first approached Emeryville's school district about the grant, asking them if they were interested. He then came to Alameda Unified where he was apparently stonewalled by both the Alameda Science and Technology Institute and by the district.

Why DeSouza was fruitless with his pitch is unclear.

Charter schools are often knocked for taking students out of a district's schools and lowering its average daily attendance, a basis for the state's complicated funding formula.

With that being said, ACLC's API score last year was 852, far higher than the state's overall junior high and high school scores, which were 716 and 683 respectively. The Bay Area School of Enterprise, a charter school at the Point, raised their API score 64 points from the previous year, only surpassed in growth in the district by the Alameda Science and Technology Institute, another charter.

One explanation for the snuffing out of at least giving the grant a fair shot is that district officials were too busy to handle a sizeable project at the same time as the budget cuts.

Another line of thought is that going public with intentions to sponsor a charter school amid financial woes may have been seen as political suicide for second-year Superintendent Ardella Dailey.

There's no good in crying over spilt milk, but it is unfortunate that this carton never got off the shelf.